Hmm, do people upgrade their tablets as compulsively as their phones? If most people who'd want one already have one, and it's closer to a computer upgrade cycle (~4-5 years) than a phone one (~2 years), the decreased iPad rate would make sense. A year ago they were still a "new" product - now a much higher percentage of buyers would be replacing a previous model.

What surprises me is that the stock is UP on the news that iPad sales declined. Sure, it's all based on future earnings, but if you have one product making 50% of your revenue and everything else is pretty much in decline, you're seriously reliant on that one area (excluding Macs due to the fact that they only really started fully shipping the new Mac Pro and it would probably be flat if you normalised for timings/etc).

Having said that, was there a big iPad launch a year ago which would account for the change in iPad sales over this quarter?

Their stock just had a 7-1 split and they further announced that they'll be doing a ~130 BILLION dollar investor payout (90B stock buyback in that, ~$3.27 per share div) so I doubt we'll see their stock drop in price this month.

Hmm, do people upgrade their tablets as compulsively as their phones? If most people who'd want one already have one, and it's closer to a computer upgrade cycle (~4-5 years) than a phone one (~2 years), the decreased iPad rate would make sense. A year ago they were still a "new" product - now a much higher percentage of buyers would be replacing a previous model.

If anybody has figures on that I'd be interested.

I know I don't. Had an iPad, skipped the 2, picked up the retina, picked up a mini (Retina for creation, mini for consumption), Skipped the 4 and the Air (for now... kinda tempted still).

With the iPhone I'm on a firm Tick Rhythm, so I'm excited to see what June brings. iPads... who knows!

iPad sales to end users were actually down only about 3%, the rest is due to changes in channel inventory: last year's sales included 1.4 million increase in channel inventory, this year's a 1.1 million decrease.

How else do you explain Windows Tablet for Desktops 8.11 (aka Windows 8 and 8 RT)? They panicked and tried to pivot their desktop OS as a tablet OS. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

This is a terribly common misconception. Microsoft is banking on something entirely different: That in a couple of years, there won't be much of a difference between a tablet and a laptop. The two device lines are already converging, and with high powered PC-level processors that sip power hitting the market, it's only a matter of time before they converge more. Convertible laptops are a quick growth sector right now, with Lenova doing incredibly strong business with their lines.

Microsoft is banking that in two years, you won't buy an ultrabook or a tablet, you'll just buy a "device" that does what you need it to do when you need it.

Whether that holds true or not, we'll see....but this simplistic view that Windows 8 was designed specifically to target the tablet market is old and tired. Companies with 55bn in liquid cash assets don't think in terms of just this year, or tomorrow, they plan things out for a decade.

How else do you explain Windows Tablet for Desktops 8.11 (aka Windows 8 and 8 RT)? They panicked and tried to pivot their desktop OS as a tablet OS. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

This is a terribly common misconception. Microsoft is banking on something entirely different: That in a couple of years, there won't be much of a difference between a tablet and a laptop. The two device lines are already converging, and with high powered PC-level processors that sip power hitting the market, it's only a matter of time before they converge more. Convertible laptops are a quick growth sector right now, with Lenova doing incredibly strong business with their lines.

Microsoft is banking that in two years, you won't buy an ultrabook or a tablet, you'll just buy a "device" that does what you need it to do when you need it.

Whether that holds true or not, we'll see....

Well, sure, in the crazy Ballmer days.

Under new sane management, Microsoft has realized that the user interface should be tailored to the input method. Hence the recent and upcoming changes to make Windows 8 mouse friendly.

It was incredibly short sighted to throw away Enterprise customers to chase a consumer tablet market they had already lost.

Apple was pretty clear in the call that iPad sell through was actually only down 3%, not 16%. Sell through last year was in the 18 million area, and sell through this past quarter in the 17 million area. Analysts didn't seem to quite understand the numbers, and Apple's explanation wasn't clear enough. The call straightened out the numbers.

How else do you explain Windows Tablet for Desktops 8.11 (aka Windows 8 and 8 RT)? They panicked and tried to pivot their desktop OS as a tablet OS. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

This is a terribly common misconception. Microsoft is banking on something entirely different: That in a couple of years, there won't be much of a difference between a tablet and a laptop. The two device lines are already converging, and with high powered PC-level processors that sip power hitting the market, it's only a matter of time before they converge more. Convertible laptops are a quick growth sector right now, with Lenova doing incredibly strong business with their lines.

Microsoft is banking that in two years, you won't buy an ultrabook or a tablet, you'll just buy a "device" that does what you need it to do when you need it.

Whether that holds true or not, we'll see....

Well, sure, in the crazy Ballmer days.

Under new sane management, Microsoft has realized that the user interface should be tailored to the input method. Hence the recent and upcoming changes to make Windows 8 mouse friendly.

It was incredibly short sighted to throw away Enterprise customers to chase a consumer tablet market they had already lost.

I don't know if it's because the majority of the people who write on the Internet about Microsoft aren't *actually* Enterprise customers, or what, but I can assure you that while Apple has effectively replaced RIM in the Enterprise mobile space, Microsoft still gets tons of money from Enterprise customers (even if it isn't Windows 8, they can still very easily buy Windows 7 licenses). That isn't likely to change for a very, very long time.

Apple was pretty clear in the call that iPad sell through was actually only down 3%, not 16%. Sell through last year was in the 18 million area, and sell through this past quarter in the 17 million area. Analysts didn't seem to quite understand the numbers, and Apple's explanation wasn't clear enough. The call straightened out the numbers.

How else do you explain Windows Tablet for Desktops 8.11 (aka Windows 8 and 8 RT)? They panicked and tried to pivot their desktop OS as a tablet OS. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

This is a terribly common misconception. Microsoft is banking on something entirely different: That in a couple of years, there won't be much of a difference between a tablet and a laptop. The two device lines are already converging, and with high powered PC-level processors that sip power hitting the market, it's only a matter of time before they converge more. Convertible laptops are a quick growth sector right now, with Lenova doing incredibly strong business with their lines.

Microsoft is banking that in two years, you won't buy an ultrabook or a tablet, you'll just buy a "device" that does what you need it to do when you need it.

Whether that holds true or not, we'll see....but this simplistic view that Windows 8 was designed specifically to target the tablet market is old and tired. Companies with 55bn in liquid cash assets don't think in terms of just this year, or tomorrow, they plan things out for a decade.

Except, as we have seen, Microsoft was wrong. They are now busily backing away from their push to make everything the same, though there may be benefits with the newer programming model they say they are moving to.

Otherwise, they are moving more closely to the Apple model, which is keeping the desktop and mobile apart to a greater extent. We keep reading that it was the lack of touch laptops that kept people from buying into the Win 8 experience, but even with them, people haven't been buying.

I think some would be surprised at how many iPad users are using them for productivity. And productivity does not mean lots of typing! I know that some people insist it does, but it does not. The numbers quoted in the call would surprise some. FEDEX replacing notebooks with iPads to the tune of thousands a year, for example.

People are learning newer ways of working, just as we did when personal computers first came out, and later, as laptops came out. If you ever hear someone saying it will never happen, you can safely disregard whatever they have to say. With students using iPads in school (95% of tablets in education are iPads), they will be accomplished in using them when they are older, and no doubt, their attitude towards them will be different from the old fogies around today who can't understand their importance. Remember that when Apple first announced the iPad there were many who were saying, with amazing confidence, that this product had no future, because it was "a third screen between our smartphones and our laptops" and so had no place.

Apple was pretty clear in the call that iPad sell through was actually only down 3%, not 16%. Sell through last year was in the 18 million area, and sell through this past quarter in the 17 million area. Analysts didn't seem to quite understand the numbers, and Apple's explanation wasn't clear enough. The call straightened out the numbers.

I updated the article with that info from the call. Thanks!

Please refrain from providing accurate and update numbers. It only confuses the trolls out there. /s

How else do you explain Windows Tablet for Desktops 8.11 (aka Windows 8 and 8 RT)? They panicked and tried to pivot their desktop OS as a tablet OS. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

This is a terribly common misconception. Microsoft is banking on something entirely different: That in a couple of years, there won't be much of a difference between a tablet and a laptop. The two device lines are already converging, and with high powered PC-level processors that sip power hitting the market, it's only a matter of time before they converge more. Convertible laptops are a quick growth sector right now, with Lenova doing incredibly strong business with their lines.

Microsoft is banking that in two years, you won't buy an ultrabook or a tablet, you'll just buy a "device" that does what you need it to do when you need it.

Whether that holds true or not, we'll see....

Well, sure, in the crazy Ballmer days.

Under new sane management, Microsoft has realized that the user interface should be tailored to the input method. Hence the recent and upcoming changes to make Windows 8 mouse friendly.

It was incredibly short sighted to throw away Enterprise customers to chase a consumer tablet market they had already lost.

I don't know if it's because the majority of the people who write on the Internet about Microsoft aren't *actually* Enterprise customers, or what, but I can assure you that while Apple has effectively replaced RIM in the Enterprise mobile space, Microsoft still gets tons of money from Enterprise customers (even if it isn't Windows 8, they can still very easily buy Windows 7 licenses). That isn't likely to change for a very, very long time.

What's changing is the percentage of what they get. That's shrinking, and they know it.